Content & Catalog
What to watch on Neon?
25
Max offline downloads
Content TypesMovies · Series · Documentaries · Kids · Originals · Offline
SubtitlesEnglish
Subscription VODWorks with VPNUpdated September 14, 2026
Reviewed by Radek Vlček · Affiliate DisclosureOur website contains affiliate links. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links at no additional cost to you.
How to Watch Neon from Anywhere: VPN Guide 2026
June 2026 rewrote what this service actually is. Sky Network Television let its Warner Bros. Discovery contract run out, HBO Max walked off to its own New Zealand subscription, and the catalog was rebuilt around Paramount, Sony Pictures Television, and BBC Studios. What did not change is the border. Neon is not available in the US or anywhere else outside New Zealand, and the help center says it plainly: you have to be in the country to press play.
The usual route is a VPN. NordVPN moves your connection to a server in Auckland, and you sign in to your own account as usual. You still pay for the subscription yourself, because a VPN only changes where the servers think you are. None of that is a guarantee, and this geo block is one of the tougher ones. Picture quality on Neon tops out at 1080p, with no 4K or HDR, and the same approach applies on a phone, tablet or laptop browser.
NZ$14.99
Price
1
Country
1080p
Max quality
4 of 7
VPNs work
2-3 min
Ready in
Quick answer
Can I watch Neon outside New Zealand?
No. Sky Network Television buys the rights for New Zealand only, so an American IP address lands on a location error instead of the catalog. Two things fix that: a paid account and a change of location. Run NordVPN, pick a New Zealand server, and Neon sees a New Zealand address instead of yours. You still fund the subscription yourself, since the tunnel shifts your IP address and nothing else.
VPN Compatibility
Best VPN for Neon
Tested weekly by our team. Green: works, amber: partial, red: blocked.
| VPN Service | Price | Neon | Tested | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 NordVPNBEST | From $2.99/mo | ✓ Works | September 12 | Try it |
 Surfshark | From $1.78/mo | ✓ Works | September 14 | Open |
 ExpressVPN | From $2.79/mo | ✓ Works | September 14 | Open |
 Private Internet Access | From $1.79/mo | ✓ Works | September 14 | Open |
 IPVanish | From $2.19/mo | ~ Partial | September 8 | Open |
 ProtonVPN | From $3.59/mo | ~ Partial | September 14 | Open |
 CyberGhost | From $1.75/mo | ~ Partial | September 10 | Open |
✓ WorksTested September 12
✓ WorksTested September 14
✓ WorksTested September 14
✓ WorksTested September 14
~ PartialTested September 8
~ PartialTested September 14
~ PartialTested September 10
Tested on September 14, 2026 · 7 VPNs, 4 working · residential IP from New Zealand · Neon updates detection continuously, results may change.
Streaming service blocking your VPN? Just disconnect and hop onto a different server in the same country. Stick to the ones labeled “streaming” or “optimized” because they’re literally built for this.
How-to
How to Unblock Neon with a VPN
Takes about 2 minutes. Works on your phone, tablet, TV, PC, or laptop.
- Pick a reliable VPNLook for fast servers inside New Zealand. NordVPN has run them for years and its monthly plan starts at $2.99.A yearly term costs noticeably less per month than rolling monthly billing.
- Connect to a New Zealand serverChoose New Zealand in the app, ideally Auckland. Wait for the handshake to confirm, then clear the site cookies so the page forgets your old location.
- Sign in to NeonOpen the website or the app and enter your credentials. One account carries up to five profiles, so nobody in the household has to share a watchlist.
- Check the picture qualityPlay any episode and watch whether the stream holds 1080p. If it wobbles, switch to another New Zealand server or move to the WireGuard protocol.
Ready to watch Neon without borders?
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Availability
Which countries is Neon available in?
Neon is only available in New Zealand. To access it from anywhere else, use a premium VPN.
Available in 1 country No VPN needed
Blocked in 193 countries VPN required
United StatesUnited KingdomAustraliaCanadaIrelandGermanyFranceJapanIndiaNetherlandsSouth AfricaBrazil
Show all 181 more countries
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British Virgin Islands
BruneiBulgariaBurkina FasoBurundiCabo VerdeCambodiaCameroonCentral African RepublicChadChileChinaColombiaComorosCongoCongo (DRC)Costa RicaCroatiaCubaCyprusCzech RepublicDenmarkDjiboutiDominicaDominican RepublicEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial GuineaEritreaEstoniaEswatiniEthiopiaFijiFinlandGabonGambiaGeorgiaGhanaGreeceGrenadaGuatemalaGuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaHaitiHondurasHungaryIcelandIndonesiaIranIraqIsraelItalyJamaicaJordanKazakhstanKenyaKiribatiKuwaitKyrgyzstanLaosLatviaLebanonLesothoLiberiaLibyaLiechtensteinLithuaniaLuxembourgMadagascarMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaliMaltaMarshall IslandsMauritaniaMauritiusMexicoMicronesiaMoldovaMonacoMongoliaMontenegroMoroccoMozambiqueMyanmarNamibiaNauruNepalNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNorth KoreaNorth MacedoniaNorwayOmanPakistanPalauPanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPolandPortugalQatarRomaniaRussiaRwandaSaint Kitts and NevisSaint LuciaSaint Vincent and GrenadinesSamoaSan MarinoSão Tomé and PríncipeSaudi ArabiaSenegalSerbiaSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSlovakiaSloveniaSolomon IslandsSomaliaSouth KoreaSouth SudanSpainSri LankaSudanSurinameSwedenSwitzerlandSyriaTaiwanTajikistanTanzaniaThailandTimor-LesteTogoTongaTrinidad and TobagoTunisiaTurkeyTurkmenistanTuvaluUAEUgandaUkraineUruguayUzbekistanVanuatuVenezuelaVietnamYemenZambiaZimbabweNeon is blocked in the United States, in the United Kingdom, in Australia, in Canada and in Ireland, plus in 188 more countries. To access it, use a premium VPN like NordVPN.
Available
Blocked / unavailable
Last tested: September 7, 2026
Steer clear of free VPNs. Most of them actually collect and sell your data, lack proper security audits, and can even expose you to malware. They’re also useless for streaming. Platforms block them instantly, leaving you with more headaches than solutions. Stick to paid VPNs with verified audits, like NordVPN, if you want something that actually works.
Pricing & Plans
How Much Does Neon Cost?
Basic with Ads
≈ $8.82
/month
Approximate price · billed in NZD
- Up to 1080p
- 2 simultaneous streams
- With ads
- No offline downloads
Most Popular
Standard
≈ $14.12
/month
Approximate price · billed in NZD
- Up to 1080p
- 2 simultaneous streams
- With ads
- Offline downloads
Annual
≈ $141.21
/year
Approximate price · billed in NZD
Save 16%
- Up to 1080p
- 2 simultaneous streams
- With ads
- Offline downloads
Ready to subscribe to Neon?
Go to the official website: no VPN needed if you’re in a supported country.
About the platform
Who’s behind the service?
What is Neon
Neon is a subscription streaming service that works only in New Zealand. Sky Network Television has run it from Mt Wellington in Auckland since February 2015, and in July 2020 it absorbed Lightbox, which Sky had bought from Spark New Zealand. The geoblock is strict: Sky’s help pages say you must be in the country to press play. The library covers movies, series, documentaries, and kids’ shows licensed from Sony Pictures Television, Paramount, and BBC Studios, with no sport, no news, and no live channels. Three tiers are on offer: a monthly Basic with Ads carrying commercial breaks, a monthly Standard, and an annual pass that costs less than twelve months of Standard. There is no free trial. Streaming tops out at HD on 2 screens at once, and movie rentals sit outside the plan.
Company and history
Major changes
- Sky Network Television launched Neon in New Zealand as its first standalone on demand service, priced around NZ$20 a month with a 30 day trial and a catalog built on US premium drama.
- Sky completed the merger with Lightbox, the rival service it had bought from Spark. Subscribers moved across to Neon, which inherited profiles, downloads and movie rentals; some 154,000 were still there in early 2021.
- From 11 January Neon pushed ad breaks into the cheaper Basic tier, which had existed since 2022, and raised Standard to NZ$19.99 a month. The annual plan went up to NZ$199.99.
- The branded Max hub arrived inside Neon, bundling premium US drama in one place. Sky New Zealand turned it into the shop window of the service and built its whole campaign around it.
- Pricing shifted again: the ad supported Basic plan went up to NZ$14.99 a month, while Standard held the level set in the April review earlier that year.
- Sky signed an exclusive deal with Paramount Skydance, routing new Showtime, Paramount+ and CBS titles to Neon. It brought the Yellowstone spinoff Y: Marshals plus a deep library including Dexter and Billions.
- An expanded multi year deal with Sony Pictures Television followed, handing Neon first run scripted drama such as The Lady, about a former royal aide, and the seventies thriller American Hostage.
- Sky unveiled a refreshed identity and the campaign Something to Stream About. Neon repositioned as a Kiwi challenger and published a partner list running from Paramount and Sony to BBC Studios.
- Bust Up premiered on Neon, a six part crime drama made as a Sky New Zealand Original with the German broadcaster ZDF. Lippy Pictures shot the buddy cop story of two former partners.
- Sky let its Warner Bros. Discovery agreement lapse, so every HBO Max title vanished from Neon. HBO Max opened in New Zealand the same day as a standalone subscription.
Trust signals
Still can’t open Neon where you are?
Connect NordVPN, pick a supported country, and you’re streaming Neon in minutes, backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Devices & Quality
Watch on all your devices
Supported devices
Video quality
1080pHDRDolby VisionDolby Atmos
UX features
Continue watchingParental controls
Insider Tips
Tips & tricks you should know
5 tips from our Neon testing team · Updated September 7, 2026
- Neon's annual Standard plan saves about 16 percent against monthly billing, but you can add it only on the neontv.co.nz website, never inside the Neon app.
- Before paying to rent a film on Neon, search the title first: a green version with no dollar sign is already included in your subscription.
- Basic with Ads already delivers HD, two streams and five profiles, so Standard really buys ad-free viewing and downloads, not a sharper picture.
- Download & Go covers phones and tablets only, caps you at 25 titles including five films, and expires 48 hours after you press play.
- Neon blocks every stream outside New Zealand, so connect NordVPN to an Auckland server before opening the app, then switch it off once you are home.
Alternatives
Other services you can watch
Not the right fit? Here are services in the same category you can compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know before subscribing to Neon.
Three tiers on Neon, and no free trial anywhere in sight. Basic with Ads runs NZ$14.99 a month and drops commercial breaks into everything. Standard drops the ad breaks for NZ$23.99 a month and leaves only skippable pause ads, and the Annual plan bills once a year at roughly a sixth less than twelve months of Standard. New release films sit outside all of that as one off rentals, so a blockbuster night costs extra.
No. Sky let the Warner Bros. Discovery contract lapse and on 16 June 2026 every HBO Max title disappeared from Neon. HBO Max now sells its own subscription in New Zealand. The gap was filled with Paramount, Sony Pictures Television and BBC Studios deals, so the shelf looks different rather than emptier.
Smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Sony, TCL, JVC, Hisense and Veon, plus Apple TV, Chromecast, the Amazon Fire TV Stick, Freeview recorders, SmartVU boxes and both PlayStation 4 and 5. In a browser it runs on Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge; on mobile it needs iOS 16 or newer, or Android 8 or newer. Windows tablets and phones are the one gap, since Neon has no app for them.
Download and Go is limited to the Standard and Annual plans on Neon, so the ad supported tier misses out. You get up to 25 titles per account, five of which can be movies, and files expire 31 days after download or 48 hours after you start playing. The catch matters here: playback is locked to New Zealand soil, so a library you filled before a flight will not open in Chicago.
Your IP address is giving you away. The player checks location on every launch and rejects anything foreign. Switch on NordVPN, pick a New Zealand server, clear the site cookies and reload. If the error survives that, check your device clock and time zone, because a mismatch between system time and server location is a common cause. After that Neon sees a New Zealand address, though nothing here is guaranteed.
Encrypting your traffic is legal in the US and in New Zealand alike, and tools such as NordVPN are standard issue in corporate IT. The terms of service are a separate question: they reserve Neon for the licensed market, so an account can in theory be suspended. Stick with audited no logs providers on a paid plan, because free apps throttle hard and monetize the traffic they carry.
Scale is the honest answer: Hulu and Peacock carry far more originals and far bigger libraries. What the New Zealand service offers instead is a mix you cannot assemble from American apps, local Kiwi drama alongside British and Australian titles that never reach US catalogs. There is also no live sport and no news channels on Neon, which Peacock does carry.
Exactly 1 country, and it is New Zealand. Sky buys rights for the domestic market only, so every other territory hits a block, Australia included even though it sits three hours away by plane. There is no international edition and no announced expansion plan. That single market footprint is the whole reason Neon shows up in VPN guides so often.
No, they are three separate Sky New Zealand products. Sky Go is a companion app for satellite subscribers, Sky Sport Now sells live sport on its own, and Neon is a standalone on demand subscription anyone can subscribe to. Worth adding: TVNZ+ is a free rival run by the public broadcaster, not part of this catalog.
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